The latest blogger in town

Yes, the Big man has started to blog. We don't know if this is in response to others doing it and doing it very well or it is just a marketing gimmick by the minders/PR agents. It does have the feel of a blog - it sounds very personal and sounds very much like coming straight from the horse's mouth. There's no doubt that I have been a big fan of the man and will remain one. The reason for some disenchantment in the recent past has been simply because some of the associations have not been what you can possibly accept with your biggest hero but then, they are like any of us. Just because they play heroes in the reel world and carry themselves so well for most of the time doesn't mean they want to be pristine, spotless heroes for life. John Buchanan has devoted some pages in "If Better is Possible" on this and it is a good read.

I did post a comment on the AB blog ...

I became a fan when I sent an Inland letter addressed to “Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Film Actor, Juhu, Bombay” asking for an autographed photograph and got a response!Watched almost all of your movies till before Mohabbatein multiple number of times, got inspired by the characters (not knowing what the script-writers do, in the making of a film..for a long time I thought the trick to escape from the hospital in Majboor was your own ingenuity)..I have used the scenes from movies like Deewar, Trishul, Kaala Patthar to get out of depression whenever things didn’t go well. Have been ragged at my quiz club for missing the questions on you/your movies. Have taken personal offense to articles that have been (in my opinion) critical of you. Yes - my warmth for you has gone down when I see you in conjunction with the politicians in SP but that’s your prerogative and inspite of all the love and warmth that we shower on you we obviously don’t/can’t/shouldn’t control your personal life. The only reason for the ‘disconnect’ with you on that count is that I(others like me) like you so much that we want you to remain as ‘clean’ (actually/purportedly) as you can possibly be. But whenever I see the fierceness with which you defend that friendship, in my eyes, you only grow in stature because I can think of many who would/could have given up on their friends because of all the controversies but it takes a brave man to actually stand up to the whole world to defend and stand alongside what you believe is right.

This does feel like having a direct line to you and that’s something that I have to thank bigadda for. Whoever thought of this brilliant idea and convinced you to do this - a big Thanks!

And yes if I see a response, I think it is time to confirm two stories that I have been telling people about AB to show how much I know about him - gleaned from arbit interviews and shows on AIR/DD - the one about his featuring in a funeral scene in Shakespearwallah as an extra which got edited out and the other one about Mahmood wanting and asking AB to sign Rajiv Gandhi in his movie (Bombay to Goa?) when Rajiv Gandhi once visited AB in Mumbai while he was staying with Mahmood's brother. If these stories get established, then I (someone reading this) can ask these in quizzes and not sound like Pornob!!!